Organizer for surgical instruments and items used during surgery

Abstract

An organizer for holding surgical instruments includes a tray that has instrument wells extending from the top surface of the tray. The instrument wells may be open to allow high-pressure steam to reach the instruments in the wells. The organizer has two sections. The first section contains sterile instruments to be used during surgery, and the second section contains empty instrument wells, each of which has a shape and depth corresponding to the shape and depth of an instrument well in the first section. After instruments are removed from the first section and used during surgery, they are returned to the corresponding instrument well in the second section. After surgery, an instrument is missing unless all the instrument wells in the second section are full. Structure may be associated with the instrument wells to indicate that an instrument well is not full.

Description

BACKGROUND[0001]1. Field[0002]Organizers for holding surgical instruments in surgical suites.[0003]2. Related Applications[0004]This application is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 14 / 509,986, filed Oct. 8, 2014, “Organizer for Surgical Instruments and Items Used during Surgery.” It also is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 14 / 685465, filed Apr. 13, 2015, having the same title. Applicant claims priority based upon those applications. Both applications are incorporated by reference[0005]3. General Background and State of the Art[0006]Surgeons and their staff need their instrument and other items used during surgery to be readily accessible and well organized. Spending time looking for missing instruments hide adds crucial time to a surgery. That is undesirable for the patient because delays increase the length of the surgery and time under anesthesia.[0007]Increasing the time for each surgery also is detrimental to surgeons, accompanying physicians and staf...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0014]The tray may have locking bars at the top or upper surface of the tray, which extend over each instrument well. In the locked position, instruments cannot be added to or removed from the instrument well. The bar can pivot or otherwise move to a position uncovering the instrument well so that instruments can be the removed or added to the instrument well. When the bar extends over the instrument well, the bar will be against the top instrument in the instrument well if the well is full. Seeing that contact between the bar and the top instrument allows one to see quickly whether the instrument well is full. If a surgical instrument is missing, the far end of the locking bar may be offset to project upwards to alert the operating staff of the missing instrument.

Problems solved by technology

Spending time looking for missing instruments hide adds crucial time to a surgery.

That is undesirable for the patient because delays increase the length of the surgery and time under anesthesia.

Increasing the time for each surgery also is detrimental to surgeons, accompanying physicians and staff and to the hospital or surgical center.

That fact alone causes delays in scheduling patients' surgeries.

In addition, if some or all the surgical suites handle even one fewer procedures every day, the hospital becomes less efficient.

Therefore, costs increase.

Because fully equipped surgical suites are very expensive, adding more surgical suites is costly.

Increased costs and decreased efficiency are not the only concerns.

More likely, it may be hidden on the operating table or dropped on the floor.

Plastic, a potential material for the tray, is not a good conductor of heat.

If the surgical instruments in the instrument wells are to be sterilized by high temperature and pressurized steam in an autoclave, the plastic of the instrument wells may prevent complete sterilization of the surgical instruments.

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